I've never bothered to tap someone with the armlock. I've only ever used the grip to pass with or to apply a collar-choke from inside the guard (although not on someone good).

This isn't a guard pass that is a one in a lifetime pass BTW. If you work on it you can be very successful at trapping the guys arm under his own body, either by grabbing it with your other arm, or wrapping it with the gi as was suggested above.

To do the pass once you've trapped his arm, the way I learnt it was if my right arm is now controlling his right arm, my left elbow goes against his left ear, I fall onto my left hip and start passing to my left. Because you are twisting his spine and controlling his arm, his legs should open up for you.

Thanks, Jonas. That is, in fact, the difference I had in mind. Most of the people I roll with are whites as well, and so I'm one of the few to very actively open their guard. Granted, it's to keep them from squishing my much smaller self, but when it comes to getting past their guard, most of the time they *will* just sit there with their legs locked, or be very very sloppy about the transition (hence my accidental leg throughs). ... hrm... thinking it over, my transitions are pretty sloppy too, so along with guard breaks, I'm gonna put some time into open guard work tomorrow.

I don't know why the other guys don't work much with it. I find it's much, much more effective for creating space and controlling the other persons body.

I don't expect it to work on anyone with experience, and I didn't say to go for the thigh, but rather the inner knee. The only question I was trying to answer is, "how to open up the foot lace" part of guard, not passing it.

Hrm. In retrospect I definitely stated it vaguely though. And, to be frank, there is a dearth of experienced grapplers here. In lieu of leverage, a healthy dose of pain is all we newbies have :P

I hate people who grapple like that (and apparently you). Rolling in class is not a fucking competition, you're not trying to win (primarily this shouldn't be your goal anyway), you're trying to get better. I know it's tough to make a distinction between the two.

Stop hurting your training partners ****-ass.

If it's any consolation, I haven't used that method in a while, most of my guard passes these days are knee-through, but only by taking advantage of the moment. I shall ask our instructor about some new passes, the only one I've had actual instruction in is the ultra basic knee to the base of the spine gi pass.

I think you're mistaking guard passing, with guard opening. They aren't the same things. Please just lurk some more before you post in DHS.

Originally Posted by Osiris

Imagine if track was run like the martial arts community. While the winning teams would just sprint down the field, smoking the competition, you'd have a bunch of losers running around explaining how they can skip down the track just as fast. Never mind that it doesn't fucking work. Oh no, they're too fast for track. They run on the STREET.

Imagine if track was run like the martial arts community. While the winning teams would just sprint down the field, smoking the competition, you'd have a bunch of losers running around explaining how they can skip down the track just as fast. Never mind that it doesn't fucking work. Oh no, they're too fast for track. They run on the STREET.